310 likes | 532 Views
Week 3: “ Indira is India, India is Indira ” Lecture 6. Prof Prerna Singh . After Nehru?. Pressing Problems . Foreign: War with Pakistan (1965). War with Pakistan. Pressing Problems . Foreign: War with Pakistan (1965) Domestic: Question of National Language . Pressing Problems .
E N D
Week 3: “Indira is India, India is Indira” Lecture 6 Prof Prerna Singh
Pressing Problems • Foreign: • War with Pakistan (1965)
Pressing Problems • Foreign: • War with Pakistan (1965) • Domestic: • Question of National Language
Pressing Problems • Foreign: • War with Pakistan (1965) • Domestic: • Question of National Language • Problem of Food Shortages
LalBahadurShastri, Prime Minister of India, 1964-1966
Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, 1966-1977, 1980-1984 Why Indira? Vote getter Could be controlled
IndiraGandhi • Forged direct link with masses • Populist “socialist” initiatives • Split the Congress Party • Congress (Indira)
“Indira is India, India is Indira” • Drive towards personalization and centralization of power • Establishment of powerful connection with the masses
Indira Gandhi • Highly Controversial Figure • Savior of the Masses or • Tyrannical Villain • Amma or • ‘Nazi Priestess’
Indira Gandhi Common Scholarly Assessment: • Deinstitutionalizing India • Weakening Congress party, bureaucracy and other institutions • Undermining Indian democracy Revisionist Assessment: • Situated Mrs Gandhi’s problems in the context of the number and magnitude of the problems
Indira Gandhi • Was Mrs Gandhi more a cause or consequence of the personalization and deinstitutionalization of the Indian polity?
Indira Gandhi AshisNandy: Psychoanalysis of Indira, as a politician and Indian society
Indira Gandhi What kind of mass sentiments allow authoritarian politics to come to the fore?
Indira Gandhi • Product of Four Intellectual Currents: • Crisis of National Faith • Rise of Post-Independence generation • Cracks in the Nehruvian edifice are beginning to show • Humiliating defeat in Sino-Indian War • Low economic growth • Agricultural Problem • High poverty • Abysmal social services • Vast numbers of illiterate, rural, disgruntled poor • Land grab programs • Rise of Revolutionary Class Movements
Indira Gandhi • Product of Four Intellectual Currents: • Crisis of National Faith • Idea that India needed Realpolitik • Against Gandhi, Nehru • “Pure Politics” • Gandhi as an aberration • Tough politics for Tough Times • Middle classes and intelligentsia cheered her on as a “real leader”
Indira Gandhi • Product of Four Intellectual Currents: • Crisis of National Faith • Idea that India needed Realpolitik • Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder • Economic problems • Lack of growth • Corruption • Social Unrest • Protests, Strikes, Riots, bandhs
Indira Gandhi • Product of Four Intellectual Currents: • Crisis of National Faith • Idea that India needed Realpolitik • Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder • Idea of a plural, democratic society was losing its appeal
Indira Gandhi • Product of Four Intellectual Currents: • Crisis of National Faith • Idea that India needed Realpolitik • Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder • Idea of a plural, democratic society was losing its appeal • Economic interests over civil liberties
Indira Gandhi • Product of Four Intellectual Currents: • Crisis of National Faith • Idea that India needed Realpolitik • Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder • Idea of a plural, democratic society was losing its appeal
Indira Gandhi • Samuel Huntington (1968): • Importance of political institutions, esp political parties • Social mobilization in the absence of strong political parties leads to political instability
Indira Gandhi • Personalization and deinstitutionalization of Congress and other institutions • Personalization and Deinstitutionalization had begun before Mrs Gandhi • Inherited weak, faction-ridden Congress + • Economic distress • Socio-political Mobilization = Crisis of Governability
Indira Gandhi • …product of the situation BUT • greatly aggravated situation
Indira Gandhi Established direct link with voters BUT Undermined the party Made electoral promises BUT Party not strong enough to fulfill these promises
Indira Gandhi • BUT left untouched: • Poverty • Provision of essential social services • Land redistribution • Populist “socialist” initiatives: • Nationalization of banks • Abolition of privy purses
Personalization of Power and Politicization of Institutions Party Abandoned even nominal intra-party democracy Made state party structures subservient to central high command Appointed key functionaries Promoted “yes men” State Institutions: Civil Service Judiciary Parliament Constitution